1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to telecommunications in general and more particularly to wireless communications devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
An exemplary telecommunications network (e.g., telecommunications network 100 of FIG. 1) establishes call connections between terminals using any one of multiple call connection paths of network 104. Network 104 may include mobile switching centers (MSCs), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switches, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) nodes, modems, servers, and/or other suitable network elements for establishing call connections between terminals. Network 104 may include other components that provide services to users of the network.
For example, network 104 may include voicemail servers that are partitioned to include mailboxes corresponding to individual terminals (e.g., terminals 102, 104, 106, and 108) and/or terminal users or service subscribers. When a terminal is off-hook or otherwise unavailable (e.g., powered-off), a call attempt from another terminal coupled to the network may result in a busy signal at the calling terminal or the network may establish a connection between the calling terminal and a voicemail server associated with the called terminal. An exemplary voicemail service stores voicemail messages on a voicemail server and a message notification server interacts with a subscriber's terminal to indicate the presence of a new message. In at least one exemplary voicemail system, a user initiates a message check procedure and the terminal dials the message notification server to obtain information regarding recorded messages stored in the subscriber's mailbox.
Network 104 may also provide a caller identification service (e.g., caller identity delivery on call waiting, i.e., CIDCW) to individual terminals. A typical caller identification service provides a terminal with an indication of the identity of a caller without requiring the user to answer the call. In operation, the caller identification system associated with the called party may retrieve information about the calling terminal from a network database and may provide that information to the called terminal. For example, network 104 may send a telephone number and/or user name associated with a calling terminal to a called terminal while the called terminal receives a ringing signal. This information may be presented to the user of the called terminal using a display or audio techniques. In addition, network 104 may provide a call waiting service to individual terminals. The call waiting service allows a called party to suspend a current call and switch to a new incoming call.